Campaign leads to high-quality safety observations

In October and November, Fingrid ran its familiar safety observation campaign for people working on Fingrid’s sites. In 2019, the campaign aimed to collect high-quality observations to enable occupational safety improvements.

“We succeeded in reaching the target. There were slightly fewer observations than in last year’s campaign, but the majority of them contained more carefully considered content,” says Markku Pöysti, Fingrid’s Occupational Safety Expert.

Markku Pöysti, Fingrid’s Occupational Safety Expert.

Observations of a high technical quality include an adequate description of the event, background information and photographs. Content quality refers to the observations that lead to immediate or subsequent improvements to occupational safety or work procedures.

The people who submitted the five best observations were rewarded with a pair of high-quality binoculars. In addition, everyone who submitted an observation was entered into a prize draw with the chance to win travel loudspeakers.

“This year, we did not give a prize for every observation like we did last year. Now, we had prizes for the five best observations. I believe that this encouraged people to think about their working environments more carefully and comprehensively.”

Raising the engagement of service suppliers

The main theme of the campaign was “Detect hazards and you can ensure that you and your colleagues have a safe day at work”. This idea underpins Fingrid’s occupational safety theme for the year as a whole: “Creating a culture of safety together”.

Markku Pöysti is particularly pleased that observations were also submitted from worksites where observations were not actively made in the past.

Observations are made at an encouraging rate all year round. In 2019, an average of 47 reports were submitted per month. During the campaign months, the average rose to 65. Over the year as a whole, almost 600 observations were made.

The majority of the observed hazards – 30 per cent of the total – were related to moving around on the worksite. Of all the different worksite types, substations were the sites where most observations were made, but people working in reserve power plants also submitted a good number of observations.

“The number of observations regarding transmission line work should be higher, as the work carries greater risks and the operating environment is very challenging.”

Work needs to be done to raise the visibility of the campaign

A safety observation campaign will also take place in 2020. No major changes are foreseen, but Fingrid will try to inform
suppliers of the campaign at an earlier stage.

“It would be great if suppliers made use of the campaign in their own occupational safety development work as much as possible. Occupational safety requires ongoing work, so we will keep our eyes open and make lots of high-quality observations this year.

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Prize-winning observations:

Jani Ranta, Omexon Suomi Oy
A fire was deliberately started outside a substation and threatened transmission lines in the vicinity.

Tomi Laaksonen, Maintpartner Oy
Several different observations relating to the tidiness of the worksite and other safety matters on a project to refurbish a reserve power plant.

Mikko Suoranta, Eltel Networks Oy
An observation outside the observer’s area of responsibility. An error in Fingrid’s grid database when a section of cable that was marked as terminal did not terminate: it continued onwards, giving rise to a potential risk in the future.

Jarno Joutsi, Maintpartner Oy
A suggestion that the maintenance personnel should register with the worksite manager when they arrive at a substation that is also a construction site, as the safety status may have changed since the previous visit.

Heikis Pöllu, Teollisuuden Metsäpalvelu Oy
An observation about a demanding landowner who hindered work on a transmission line chipping site, thereby giving rise to a risk of third-party injury.